Two cities claim one conquistador

Published: Sunday, March 31, 2013 at 4:32 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, March 31, 2013 at 4:32 p.m.

Viva Florida 500 — the state's year-long effort to showcase its zeal for history — will get a newsy boost on Tuesday. That is when two coastal cities will compete for bragging rights to the legacy of Juan Ponce de Leon.

One of St. Augustine's three Juan Ponce de Leon stautues. Some historians say it should be pointing to the city of Melbourne.

AP PHOTO

But the backstage buildup to those events is slathered in the sort of controversy that provoked William Faulkner's famous take on human nature: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

On April 2, 1513, the Spanish conquistador became the first European of record to see our lovely subtropical peninsula, which he named "La Florida." He slogged ashore the following day. Exactly 500 years later, in the absence of precise logs indicating where Ponce de Leon left bootprints, St. Augustine and Melbourne Beach will celebrate the milestone by sponsoring separate festivities roughly 125 miles apart.

One of the key players in the Melbourne Beach event is still smarting over the acidic debate that defeated his campaign to name a barrier island for the 16th-century explorer.

"This wasn't about history," charges activist Sam Lopez, an ethnic Puerto Rican. "This had more of a racial tone to it."

Equally offended was the American Indian Association of Florida Inc. in Winter Park. One of its members regards the homage to Ponce de Leon — who was killed by aboriginal Floridians — as a "fiasco."

"De Leon was a murderer and thief searching only for what riches and land he could claim for a queen on the other side of the world," Rebecca Howie said. "Nothing about his arrival on this continent justifies a celebration.

"In fact, so far as I would be concerned, a funeral march might be in order."

History, revised

The road to this contemporary kerfuffle was paved in 1992, when the prestigious Florida Historical Quarterly published a paper by Bradenton mariner Douglas Peck.

Two years earlier, setting sail from Puerto Rico with springtime currents and winds aboard a 33-foot cutter, Peck employed modern navigational technology in recreating Ponce de Leon's voyage to Florida.

But instead of landing at 30 degrees 8 minutes north latitude — the original coordinate supplied by Ponce de Leon, which is between St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra Beach — Peck found himself at 28 degrees north latitude, or Melbourne Beach.

Peck blamed the discrepancy on the failure of 16th-century compasses manufactured in Seville to correct for magnetic variations.

Key historians, such as the University of Florida's Michael Gannon, were impressed enough to revise the books.

The news was a thunderclap to St. Augustine, founded by Spain in 1565 and billed as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the U.S. It became commercially synonymous with Ponce de Leon in 1882 when railroad tycoon Henry Flagler opened Hotel Ponce de Leon, now Flagler College. In 1907, the city sanctioned a Ponce de Leon Celebration.

Today, St. Augustine counts three Ponce de Leon statues.

Gannon, now retired, is only half joking when he suggests the city should take its main statue — the one where the conquistador points north from atop a pedestal — and pivot it to the south, toward Melbourne Beach.

"But legends die hard," Gannon said.

Indeed. Thirty degrees 8 minutes has a liturgical hold on St. Augustine. Yet another Ponce de Leon statue will be unveiled at pristine Ponte Vedra Beach on Tuesday.

"As far as exactly where he came to shore no one really knows," says Kathy Catron, a spokeswoman for the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau. "What we have are logs that show he marked 30 degrees 8 minutes north latitude, which is just north of St. Augustine."

"Unfortunately," adds St. Augustine's Kit Keating, "Dr. Gannon says he's satisfied with Peck's journey, but it had nothing in common with Ponce de Leon. Peck was in a 30-something-foot sailboat; Ponce de Leon had caravels 50, 60, 70 feet long, all heavily loaded."

Keating, marketing manager for the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, concedes that popular notions of Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth is "just a myth."

But that's as far as he'll budge.

"I don't see how he could've sighted land at 30 degrees 8 minutes, north of St. Augustine," Keating says, "and landed the next day in Melbourne Beach."

Melbourne's claim

Down south, in Brevard County, Peck's voyage stoked the imagination of Sam Lopez, a retired New York union organizer and history buff.

More than a decade ago, Lopez began lobbying local officials to capitalize on the Space Coast's suddenly enhanced place in history by honoring Ponce de Leon.

In 2005, the county designated the site where Peck came ashore, just south of Melbourne Beach, as Juan Ponce de Leon Landing, complete with historical marker.

On Tuesday, Melbourne Beach will mark the quincentennial with a re-enactment, a military color guard, a mass at Immaculate Conception Church and the unveiling of a 10-foot bronze statue of Ponce de Leon.

"I think it's mainly about celebrating an event that's going to come and go," says Rob Varley, executive director of Florida's Space Coast Office of Tourism. "St. Augustine is where they really enjoy history, and we can't take anything away from them on that end."

But Lopez was originally thinking bigger than a one-day blowout. But his bid to name the nameless barrier island for the explorer who applied an arbitrary moniker to Florida fell apart last November amid acrimonious rhetoric.

"Just a handful of people stopped it," Lopez says, "and it was a real shame.

"I remember one guy said Ponce de Leon was just like Hitler. He said he came here and murdered women and mutilated children, and I said, 'Wow, you don't know what you're talking about, prove it.' He said Ponce de Leon was being taught in a genocide class in Yale, but we got the information from Yale and there's nothing in there about Ponce de Leon, and I started asking, 'Isn't anybody going to stand up to these lies?'"

No one from Yale University's Genocide Studies Program responded to the Herald-Tribune's requests for more information.

The American Indian Association of Florida, which circulated an online petition to stop Lopez's project, also submitted a counter-proposal to name it Ais Island, after the original Native American inhabitants.

In November, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names — the ultimate arbiter of such disputes — decided to keep the island nameless.

"Ponce de Leon, like everybody else, had flaws," says Ben Brotemarkle, executive director of the Florida Historical Society in Cocoa. "Yes, he was looking to enslave people when he came here. That's a fact. To say that wiping everyone out was his goal is an overstatement. But it's true that the door he opened led to the death of many people.

"The unfortunate thing, from a historical perspective, is that the island wound up not getting named anything at all," Brotemarkle said. "There's a misconception out there that Florida has shallow historical roots that run no deeper than a theme park when, in fact, we have more history than any other state."

But the historian is not surprised at how the quincentennial has reopened old wounds, however ancient.

When Brotemarkle contemplates Florida's pre-Columbian civilization, he thinks of the Apalachee, "the great farmers of the Panhandle" who developed storage systems for their harvests. He imagines the Calusa, the "very artistic mask-makers" who rewarded Ponce de Leon with a fatal arrow wound in 1521, along with many others.

"There were over 200,000 Timucua alone, from north Florida to the center of the state," Brotemarkle said.

"The big take-away is there was a diverse society that had been thriving here for 10,000 years, and their lives were forever changed by contact — smallpox, measels, diseases just wiped them out."

<p>Viva Florida 500 — the state's year-long effort to showcase its zeal for history — will get a newsy boost on Tuesday. That is when two coastal cities will compete for bragging rights to the legacy of Juan Ponce de Leon.</p><p>But the backstage buildup to those events is slathered in the sort of controversy that provoked William Faulkner's famous take on human nature: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."</p><p>On April 2, 1513, the Spanish conquistador became the first European of record to see our lovely subtropical peninsula, which he named "La Florida." He slogged ashore the following day. Exactly 500 years later, in the absence of precise logs indicating where Ponce de Leon left bootprints, St. Augustine and Melbourne Beach will celebrate the milestone by sponsoring separate festivities roughly 125 miles apart.</p><p>One of the key players in the Melbourne Beach event is still smarting over the acidic debate that defeated his campaign to name a barrier island for the 16th-century explorer.</p><p>"This wasn't about history," charges activist Sam Lopez, an ethnic Puerto Rican. "This had more of a racial tone to it."</p><p>Equally offended was the American Indian Association of Florida Inc. in Winter Park. One of its members regards the homage to Ponce de Leon — who was killed by aboriginal Floridians — as a "fiasco."</p><p>"De Leon was a murderer and thief searching only for what riches and land he could claim for a queen on the other side of the world," Rebecca Howie said. "Nothing about his arrival on this continent justifies a celebration.</p><p>"In fact, so far as I would be concerned, a funeral march might be in order."</p><p><b>History, revised</b></p><p>The road to this contemporary kerfuffle was paved in 1992, when the prestigious Florida Historical Quarterly published a paper by Bradenton mariner Douglas Peck.</p><p>Two years earlier, setting sail from Puerto Rico with springtime currents and winds aboard a 33-foot cutter, Peck employed modern navigational technology in recreating Ponce de Leon's voyage to Florida.</p><p>But instead of landing at 30 degrees 8 minutes north latitude — the original coordinate supplied by Ponce de Leon, which is between St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra Beach — Peck found himself at 28 degrees north latitude, or Melbourne Beach.</p><p>Peck blamed the discrepancy on the failure of 16th-century compasses manufactured in Seville to correct for magnetic variations.</p><p>Key historians, such as the University of Florida's Michael Gannon, were impressed enough to revise the books.</p><p>The news was a thunderclap to St. Augustine, founded by Spain in 1565 and billed as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the U.S. It became commercially synonymous with Ponce de Leon in 1882 when railroad tycoon Henry Flagler opened Hotel Ponce de Leon, now Flagler College. In 1907, the city sanctioned a Ponce de Leon Celebration.</p><p>Today, St. Augustine counts three Ponce de Leon statues.</p><p>Gannon, now retired, is only half joking when he suggests the city should take its main statue — the one where the conquistador points north from atop a pedestal — and pivot it to the south, toward Melbourne Beach.</p><p>"But legends die hard," Gannon said.</p><p>Indeed. Thirty degrees 8 minutes has a liturgical hold on St. Augustine. Yet another Ponce de Leon statue will be unveiled at pristine Ponte Vedra Beach on Tuesday.</p><p>"As far as exactly where he came to shore no one really knows," says Kathy Catron, a spokeswoman for the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau. "What we have are logs that show he marked 30 degrees 8 minutes north latitude, which is just north of St. Augustine."</p><p>"Unfortunately," adds St. Augustine's Kit Keating, "Dr. Gannon says he's satisfied with Peck's journey, but it had nothing in common with Ponce de Leon. Peck was in a 30-something-foot sailboat; Ponce de Leon had caravels 50, 60, 70 feet long, all heavily loaded."</p><p>Keating, marketing manager for the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, concedes that popular notions of Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth is "just a myth."</p><p>But that's as far as he'll budge.</p><p>"I don't see how he could've sighted land at 30 degrees 8 minutes, north of St. Augustine," Keating says, "and landed the next day in Melbourne Beach."</p><p><b>Melbourne's claim</b></p><p>Down south, in Brevard County, Peck's voyage stoked the imagination of Sam Lopez, a retired New York union organizer and history buff.</p><p>More than a decade ago, Lopez began lobbying local officials to capitalize on the Space Coast's suddenly enhanced place in history by honoring Ponce de Leon.</p><p>In 2005, the county designated the site where Peck came ashore, just south of Melbourne Beach, as Juan Ponce de Leon Landing, complete with historical marker.</p><p>On Tuesday, Melbourne Beach will mark the quincentennial with a re-enactment, a military color guard, a mass at Immaculate Conception Church and the unveiling of a 10-foot bronze statue of Ponce de Leon.</p><p>"I think it's mainly about celebrating an event that's going to come and go," says Rob Varley, executive director of Florida's Space Coast Office of Tourism. "St. Augustine is where they really enjoy history, and we can't take anything away from them on that end."</p><p>But Lopez was originally thinking bigger than a one-day blowout. But his bid to name the nameless barrier island for the explorer who applied an arbitrary moniker to Florida fell apart last November amid acrimonious rhetoric.</p><p>"Just a handful of people stopped it," Lopez says, "and it was a real shame.</p><p>"I remember one guy said Ponce de Leon was just like Hitler. He said he came here and murdered women and mutilated children, and I said, 'Wow, you don't know what you're talking about, prove it.' He said Ponce de Leon was being taught in a genocide class in Yale, but we got the information from Yale and there's nothing in there about Ponce de Leon, and I started asking, 'Isn't anybody going to stand up to these lies?'"</p><p>No one from Yale University's Genocide Studies Program responded to the Herald-Tribune's requests for more information.</p><p>The American Indian Association of Florida, which circulated an online petition to stop Lopez's project, also submitted a counter-proposal to name it Ais Island, after the original Native American inhabitants.</p><p>In November, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names — the ultimate arbiter of such disputes — decided to keep the island nameless.</p><p>"Ponce de Leon, like everybody else, had flaws," says Ben Brotemarkle, executive director of the Florida Historical Society in Cocoa. "Yes, he was looking to enslave people when he came here. That's a fact. To say that wiping everyone out was his goal is an overstatement. But it's true that the door he opened led to the death of many people.</p><p>"The unfortunate thing, from a historical perspective, is that the island wound up not getting named anything at all," Brotemarkle said. "There's a misconception out there that Florida has shallow historical roots that run no deeper than a theme park when, in fact, we have more history than any other state."</p><p>But the historian is not surprised at how the quincentennial has reopened old wounds, however ancient.</p><p>When Brotemarkle contemplates Florida's pre-Columbian civilization, he thinks of the Apalachee, "the great farmers of the Panhandle" who developed storage systems for their harvests. He imagines the Calusa, the "very artistic mask-makers" who rewarded Ponce de Leon with a fatal arrow wound in 1521, along with many others.</p><p>"There were over 200,000 Timucua alone, from north Florida to the center of the state," Brotemarkle said.</p><p>"The big take-away is there was a diverse society that had been thriving here for 10,000 years, and their lives were forever changed by contact — smallpox, measels, diseases just wiped them out."</p>